


i want to know what love is (i want you to show me)

by kangchanhee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Falling In Love, Love, M/M, different than usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24771961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangchanhee/pseuds/kangchanhee
Summary: five times donghyuck asked what love is and one time he knew the answer
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	i want to know what love is (i want you to show me)

1

* * *

“What is love?” Donghyuck found himself asking.

The boys were lying on a blanket outside, stargazing. Their arms were touching slightly. It wasn’t a particularly warm night but they could manage. Jaemin had brought jackets for both of them that neither of them were too keen on fetching from the car.

The stars weren’t hot enough to warm them but something about Jaemin’s quiet laugh and his hand reaching out to hold Donghyuck’s made the temperature rise ever so slightly and the thought of leaving, even if it was for a few minutes, just to get a jacket, unbearable.

“It’s this,” Jaemin replied.

And Donghyuck didn’t understand but Jaemin sounded so sure that he wished he did.

2

* * *

“What is love?” Donghyuck asked again.

This time they were studying. Jaemin was losing his mind over a physics task, while Donghyuck was struggling to figure out a way to start his essay.

Donghyuck didn’t know. He hadn’t experienced it yet.

Sure, he loved his mom but he also loved chocolate chip cookies and those were two very different things. Was either of them actual love or was it just an expression?

Donghyuck was sure at this point that everyone was born with a manual that taught them what love was and how to manage and uphold it properly but no one had bothered to give one to him as well.

A quiet laugh escaped Jaemin’s lips.

“It’s everything,” he replied.

The boy didn’t even lift his head. The answer came so easy to him that Donghyuck couldn’t ask further. It was as if it was self-explanatory and Donghyuck was a fool to not understand it.

But he didn’t.

Donghyuck still didn’t understand what love was. But if it was everything, then maybe there was nothing to understand.

3

* * *

“What is love?” Donghyuck asked.

The boys were sitting in a cafe in comfortable silence, Jaemin tapping away on his phone, occasionally stopping to have a sip of coffee or to look up at the other boy, who was watching the people there, sharing smiles and laughs. A girl glanced at her friend before stealing a piece of sushi from her plate and a hint of mischief appeared in her eyes.

Jaemin locked his phone and lifted his head. He looked around the room until his eyes landed on an elderly couple, the man feeding his wife a piece of cake.

Jaemin laughed softly as he saw her leaning in to her husband to clean the corner of his mouth that now had whipped cream on it from the coffee he was drinking.

“It’s them,” he replied with a smile and turned back to Donghyuck.

Donghyuck didn’t understand.

How could love be two random people? Surely, Jaemin was just kidding and he had a better answer than that. He couldn’t just look around and pick a couple of people, and that would be love. Yet Jaemin said it so matter-of-factly that Donghyuck didn’t dare object.

Jaemin was smarter than Donghyuck in love, he knew what love was.

Donghyuck still didn’t understand.

4

* * *

“What is love?” Donghyuck asked in a whisper.

He didn’t give time for Jaemin to answer and pressed his lips onto the other boy’s. Jaemin kissed back a bit too eagerly to be deemed soft but a bit too slowly to be considered uncontrollable and impatient.

Donghyuck’s hands explored every inch of Jaemin’s skin with great precision, he wanted to know all of Jaemin, to save and cherish the feeling, the way Jaemin’s skin burnt under Donghyuck’s touch.

Jaemin was smiling into the kiss, making sure not to leave the boy’s lips alone, even if the small whine that came out of Donghyuck whenever he did was cute.

Jaemin giggled as they fell into the bed backwards, barely avoiding hitting their heads on the wall behind them.

“It’s you,” he replied in between kisses. The boy took a breath and kissed Donghyuck again, not letting him ask any more.

With every single answer, love got more and more complicated. How could love be an elderly couple and everything, while also being him? How could love be so much while also being only him?

Donghyuck failed to understand again. But it was a long way until he was ready to understand himself, too, so maybe Jaemin was right. Maybe love really was him.

5

* * *

“What is love?” Donghyuck asked as Jaemin pushed the swings.

The sun was starting to set as the boys occupied the lonely playground, empty of children’s laughs and overprotective parents.

Jaemin took a moment this time, finding the right words. It was unusual for him not to have an answer ready. Donghyuck managed to start to worry already. Had it been so long already that love didn’t have a meaning in Jaemin’s eyes? Donghyuck didn’t understand what love was but he knew that for Jaemin that was the most beautiful thing, and if Jaemin didn’t know love anymore then Donghyuck didn’t want to know it either.

“It’s us,” he replied after a moment of silence.

Donghyuck looked up at the sky as Jaemin pushed the swings again. He swore upon the moon and the stars that if love truly was them, he wanted nothing more but to keep feeling it.

Maybe Donghyuck would understand it.

\+ 1

* * *

Love was Jaemin holding out his hand for Donghyuck.

Love was Donghyuck laughing at Jaemin’s jokes, even if they were terrible.

Love was Jaemin smiling whenever their eyes met and Donghyuck smiling back every time without fail.

Love was Jaemin bickering and complaining about the littlest things to hear Donghyuck bicker back, just because the sound of his voice just never grew old.

Love was Donghyuck sneaking glances at Jaemin whenever he was furrowing his brow over a particularly hard maths problem, even though the boy had things to do himself.

Love was Jaemin’s soft giggle after they kissed and love was Donghyuck immediately kissing the other again, over and over, because his giggle was the only thing Donghyuck wanted to hear.

Donghyuck knew he loved Jaemin every time he bid him goodnight.

Donghyuck knew Jaemin loved him every time the boy said good morning.

And Donghyuck understood.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> this is very different from how i usually write but i was Yearning and i want a gf  
> anyway ahaha send ur gf/enby pal applications to my twitter @witchhyuck ;) or just be my friend pls


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